Original Variant of the Preface to the PamphletWorkers on the Split in the Party[1]

Written:Written in July 1905Published:First published in 1926 inLenin Miscellany V.

      Published according to the manuscript.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1972,

      Moscow,Volume 9,

      pages161-162.Translated:The Late Abraham Fineberg and Julius KatzerTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

COVER:The Voice of the Workers and the Split in the Party

Publishedby the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.

I.Preface by the Editorial Board ofProletary.

II.Letter from an Odessa Worker.

III.Reply to a Letter from a Worker. ByAbramov.

IV.Open Letter from the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. to the Organising
Committee.

InNo. 8 ofProletarywe mentioned the forthcoming publication of a
letter from an Odessa worker, who, in our opinion, has expressed the temper of a
fairly large number of workers. In reply to this letter we are publishing, in
the first place, an article by Comrade Abramov of theProletarystaff
“Reply to a Letter from a Worker”, and in the second place,
“An Open Letter to the Organising Committee” from the Central
Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.,[2]which was recently released in Russia and
featured in No. 10 ofProletary.

Asfor us, we would emphasise only one thing—unification is
essential. “Worker” is quite right in insisting on this. However,
insistence is not sufficient; what is needed is the ability to bring about
unification, the strength to achieve unification. It is not hard to stand aside
and form a thirdparty or neutral group. That will not bring unification closer, but will only
      defer it; it will not simplify the present confused state of affairs, but
      will only make it more con fused. The decisions made at the Conference of
      the Minority or new-Iskrists give no direct or clear answer to the
      question ofprecisely howunification can and should be
    achieved. The decisions of the Third Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. provide that
    answer in the shape of the Party Rules, which fully guarantee the Minority’s
    rights. It would be ridiculous to consider that answer infallible or
    ideal. But anyone who would not merely talk of unification but really work
    for its achievement through effective measures and proposals should not
    limit himself to reproaches and reproofs, should not in crease the split by
    forming a third party, but should set about preparing his answer to the
    question of the conditions and forms of unification. That is a far more
    difficult matter than the preaching of peace and love, but then it is far
    more useful.

Editorial Board of “Proletary”

[1]This document is the original draft of Lenin’s introduction to the pamphletWorkers on the Split in the Party, which was published in Geneva in
August 1905. One of the variants of the title of the pamphlet wasThe Voice
of the Workers and the Split in the Party.The title of the document has
been provided by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Central Committee,
C.P.S.U.

.

[2]An Open Letter to the Mensheviks’ Organising Committee from the
R.S.D.L.P.’s Central Committeewas to have been published in No. 10 ofProletary, but was actually published in No. 11, August 9 (July 27),
1905. The letter proposed negotiations on problems of uniting the Party on the
basis of the Programme and Rules adopted by the Third Congress. The first and
second conferences of representatives of the Central Committee and the
Organising Committee took place in July, and the third in September 1905. The
conferences showed that by their schismatic action the Mensheviks were wrecking
unification of the Party.